CH.11 Discussion question
Name: Wenyang ma
Student nr. 0877647
Class: IBMS 405
1.Is there a difference between forecasting demand and forecasting sales? Can demand be
forecast from historical sales data?
Demand and sales, however, are not always the same thing. Whenever the demand is not
constrained by capacity or other management policies, the forecasting of demand will be the
same as the forecasting of sales. Otherwise, sales may be somewhat below real customer
demand.
5.Describe the uses of qualitative, time-series, and causal forecasts.
Qualitative forecasting methods utilize managerial judgment, experience, relevant data, and an
implicit mathematical model. Because the model is implicit, two different managers both using
qualitative methods often arrive at widely different forecasts.
Time-series methods are used to make detailed analyses of past demand patterns over time and
use those patterns to predict demand in the future. One of the basic assumptions of all time-
series methods is that demand can be decomposed into components such as average level,
